This invention relates to personal media devices and, more particularly, to an integrated microphone assembly for personal media devices.
The proliferation of compact portable personal media devices (e.g., portable MP3 players, portable video players, and media capable cellular telephones) has created a need for the reliable reception of voice or other audio input information via more durable, reliable, and robust microphone assemblies from users while respecting the need to minimize the overall form factor of personal media devices.
One problem with existing media devices such as cellular telephones is that the media device's microphone assembly is susceptible to external forces that can damage its housing or subassembly components such as a diaphragm, transducer, or electric components. For example, a hand-held media device may be dropped by a user. An impact, even from a relatively short distance, can result in structural damage to a microphone assembly mounted on an internal printed circuit board (PCB) or mounted to the housing of the media device. Accordingly, there is a need for mounting a microphone assembly in such a way as to reduce the susceptibility of the assembly to physical stress resulting from, for example, a physical impact on the device or “drop shock.”
Another problem with existing media devices is that the structural rigidity of the microphone assembly or its surrounding components or materials may not be sufficient to adequately mitigate the effects of vibrations or interference from an acoustic source. For example, vibrations induced from an acoustic source, a user, an alarm, or another vibration source could adversely effect or reduce the acoustic coupling of sound from an external aperture of the media device to the microphone assembly. Accordingly, there is a need for enhanced structural rigidity of the microphone assembly or its surrounding materials to enable the microphone assembly to efficiently receive audio from the external housing aperture of a media device.
Another problem with existing media devices is that the arrangement of certain components is limited by the need for a microphone assembly to be in close proximity to the external aperture that receives audio signals. Accordingly, there is a need to enable more flexible positioning of a microphone assembly with respect to its associated external aperture to enable more flexible arrangement of components in a constrained form factor media device.